Batik is a technique of dying images and designs on cloth. The artist pours melted wax onto predetermined areas on the cloth where he does not want a certain color, whereupon the cloth is immersed in dye. The unwaxed areas of fabric absorb the dye, producing a pattern when the wax is removed. Images including multiple colors are produced by systematically applying wax to various areas of the cloth and immersing the cloth in different color dyes.
One technique that is unique to the Batik process is that once the wax is applied to the cloth and has hardened, the cloth can be flexed to cause cracks in the wax coating. When a subsequent dye color is applied (such as the final cloth color), the dye will penetrate these cracks to dye the fabric. This produces an effect on the image of a number of randomly oriented lines of varying thickness in the pattern. The color of the crack lines will depend upon the order of the dyes used. These crack lines are unique to this Batik method.
Another feature of Batik is that the individual pattern line thickness and shading will vary depending on how the artist applies the melted wax. For example, wax can be poured on to create lines that vary in both thickness and density.
The Batik method, however, is a slow, labor intensive process that does not lend itself to mass production. The artist or creator must manually apply the wax for the image, and then dye the cloth. Then more wax must be applied to other areas, and then dyed again. Often wax must also be removed from sections. These steps must be repeated for each color. The final dye color is what the color of the remaining unwaxed portions of the cloth will be. This processing must be performed on each cloth item. Therefore, each finished batik is unique, both in artistic layout and in bleed-through from wax crack line.
Also, in multi-colored designs, large areas of the cloth end up being repeatedly dyed several different colors since all unwaxed areas are exposed to each dye immersion. This consumes excess dye and increases costs.